'Indefensible' reassessments of young offenders fuel serious crime

A Youth Justice Board (YJB) report has highlighted a series of issues that have led to young people not being dealt with appropriately by YOTs, with potentially tragic results.

Serious incidents, as categorised by the YJB, can include the death of a young person in custody.

The term also covers instances when a young person under the supervision of a YOT commits an offence such as murder, rape, torture or firearms offences.

It is unclear how many serious incidents took place during the period covered by the report, October 2007 to December 2008.

However, the report states that the "issue of poor quality assessments has been raised as a common theme across a large proportion of serious incidents reported in England and Wales".

Problems identified include YOT staff "cloning" previous assessments rather than completing a new one when a young person's circumstances change.

Meanwhile, assessment scores are sometimes "not linked to the evidence provided" leading to "indefensible decision-making", according to the report.

Rod Morgan, former chair of the YJB, said: "This is something that has been repeatedly stressed. There are pressures as a result of the government's emphasis on enforcement and risk assessments. The general concern, when things go wrong, is that you quite often find risk assessments have been insufficiently linked to evidence or haven't been updated."

Mike Thomas, chair of the Association of Youth Offending Team Managers, said YOTs should be given the resources to ensure assessments are carried out properly.

Concerns about workload pressures were raised by the adult probation service last week after it emerged that 23-year-old Dano Sonnex, who killed two French students, should have been in custody but was wrongly bailed.

John Drew, chief executive of the YJB, said most assessments are of "good or better standard".

He added that the YJB is continuing to develop procedures to support staff.